Villalobos, who boasts an extensive amount of paid acting experience, is one of a small group of local actors who pursue paid work from Corpus Christi, bucking the traditional move to Austin, Los Angeles or New York.

"It's very hard to be a working actor and stay in Corpus Christi," Villalobos said. "I've been blessed to receive as much work as I have, but most people move where the work is."

Local actress Autumn Caro routinely travels to San Antonio and Austin to grab extra paid work on TV and film, appearing in the Austin-based TV series "Friday Night Lights" several times. She said the key to finding paid work is using the Internet to find every opportunity and to be willing to travel.

"I got the Friday Night Lights job through a Yahoo group about Austin Casting," Caro said. "When you land the role and they call you, you get in the car and go."

Villalobos also received his TV role by answering an online casting call.

"They were looking for a specific skill set — riding and shooting from a horse with period firearm experience," Villalobos said. "I had done a lot of that in prior roles. The next step, since I didn't live in L.A., was an audition over Skype. Once I received the role, they flew me in to shoot."

Villalobos is returning to L.A. soon to shoot a follow-up episode.

Villalobos and Caro would love to see more paid filmmaking activity here, but said it will require coordinated effort from city officials and the local filmmaking community.

"It's fun to be on set and watch the (filmmaking) process," Caro says. "I'd just like to see more of that down here."

"Austin and Dallas have the benefit of experience," Villalobos said. "It's easy to get locations, cast and crew there because they do it so often. Corpus Christi is currently on the wrong side of the learning curve. Hopefully we'll get there."